Place Your Bets: Trading on Buzz

George W. Bush is worth more than Brad Pitt. Well, at least on Trendio com a site where you can speculate on the news. Investors start with $10,000 in play money, which they can plow into some 200 terms, like Michael Jackson, gunman and Dick Cheney. Trading prices of the terms fluctuate according to how often they appear in stories from 3,000 media sources--so the value of Brad Pitt spiked on news of his daughter's birth. But if you can't make real money, what's the point? "Media consumers don't give much thought to the news they receive," says creator...